Was there a “Hitler-approved German church” in Germany? I’m not sure it an appropriate analogy. For political reasons, Hitler’s idea was to temporarily tolerate Catholics, the largest unified religious voting bloc, while due to the diffuse nature of Protestant hierarchy, he could divide and control them.
Hitler was an atheist, who, like Marxists, wanted to remove religious consciousness from people and replace it with something which served the state (and german race).
Whatever you think about Putin, he simply is returning to the form of Russian society and governance that has existed for 1000 years - the Orthodox Church as a pillar of stability in Russia, a defining characteristic of the Russian people, who will also be a tool of governance. In that regard I see it as no different from what was once the Church of England.
Whew. You need to read more about the struggles of Christians under Hitler and the struggles of Christians in Russia who are not in the Putin-approved church. Have your read: “Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy” by Eric Metaxas. Christians today who do not go along with Putin are persona non grata. Why do Christian FReepers carry water or ignore the very UN-Christian nature of KGB Colonel Putin turned ultra-nationalist Russian?
The short answer is “sort of.” See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichskonkordat.
It wasn’t a “Hitler-approved” Catholic Church, because he always did very much hate the Catholic Church as an organization, but it was a Church that agreed to neutralize some of its ability to oppose Hitler in exchange for Catholics not becoming second-class citizens and Church property not being molested. It wasn’t as much of a sell-out by the Vatican as it might seem at first because the Church had always had Concordats with German monarchical states to a greater or lesser extent regulating the appointment of bishops and the abbots of particularly wealth abbies. Up to the early 19th century, many of the German princely states actually WERE Catholic ecclesiastical entities, i.e., dioceses, archdioceses and abbies that were also countries under the rule of their prince-bishop or prince-abbot.